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The Carnegie Endowment Report on the Balkan Wars and the Ottoman Response
Abstract
The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 marked a decisive moment in the crystallization of Turkish national identity. In order to study this moment, this paper will examine the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars. The Carnegie Report was written by a commission that consisted of one representative from each neutral European Great Power, and attempted to provide an unbiased account of the atrocities committed by the various armies involved in the Balkan Wars. The resulting work is heavily referenced in historical works on the Balkan Wars as a unique primary source. The Carnegie Report was not only a pioneering effort of the international peace movement that would culminate in institutions such as the League of Nations and United Nations, the document produced was non-binding but nonetheless carried an air of impartial adjudication. I will argue in this paper that the response to the announcing of this Commission and the resulting coverage of the completed Report in various contemporary Ottoman newspapers sheds light on the Ottoman world view at this critical moment of transition from inclusive policies of pan-Islamic and pan-Ottoman national identities towards an exclusive Turkist or pan-Turkist ideology. The Ottoman newspapers viewed the Report as vindication of their plight on the international scene. The editorials shifted in tone from the announcement of the Commission in August of 1913, when the editorials expound on the plight of the "Muslims and the Greek Orthodox" against the Bulgars. Less than a year later, in the the May 1914 previews of the Report, and in other responses the Ottoman newspaper articles decry the depraved acts of the Greeks and Bulgarians towards the Muslims. This Report was seen by the Ottomans as presenting Ottoman grievances to the Western world, and the change from an inclusive national ideology to an exclusive one is observable when the Ottoman responses to the Carnegie Report are examined. To help support this argument and provide context, the Carnegie Report itself will be examined, as well as the response in the Western world. This paper will scrutinize the Carnegie Report's unique position in Ottoman history and as a focal point to analyze the transition of the Ottoman Empire's national identity in the critical year spanning the end of the Balkan Wars to the beginning of World War I.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Balkans
Ottoman Empire
Turkey
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries